Cherry Hills Village — The Righteous Dude knows no fear on the golf course, with his long hair flowing in the Colorado wind as he chases the ghost of Arnold Palmer.
“Mr. Palmer is an awesome figure,” Neal Shipley said Saturday after beating John Marshall Butler 2&1 to advance to the championship round of the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club.
Shipley grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, fewer than 50 miles as the crow flies from Latrobe, where this hoity-toity sport’s original champion of the people was born.
Newsflash: No male golfer from western Pennsylvania has won the U.S. Amateur since 1954.
Any guesses who that might have been?
“Who would that have been? Jay Sigel?” Shipley asked.
Excellent guess. But Sigel is from the wrong end of the Keystone State.
The answer is Palmer, beloved as the King.
Shipley is embraced for being a regular dude.
He was ranked on the outskirts of the top 1,000 among the world’s amateur golfers only a year ago. This 22-year-old competitor is built a little like Charles Barkley, but grips it and rips it more like John Daly.
To steal my favorite line from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” he seems to be very popular with the gallery. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, dweebies … They all adore him.
Didn’t matter if you drove daddy’s Tesla or took an RTD bus to Cherry Hills, Shipley was da man you rooted for on this sizzling summer afternoon.
And make no mistake. He felt their love while rallying from down in his semifinal match against Butler, finally taking the lead on the 16th hole.
“It seems like the crowd likes me,” Shipley said. “I’m trying to use that energy when I hit good golf shots … keep good vibes going.”
The lovin’ feeling is important in a match-play tourney that requires the bumping and grinding of a half dozen head-to-head victories to win this championship. How do I put this? If the relationship between spectators and players at the U.S. Am was any more intimate, everybody would have to get a room.
And that’s a beautiful thing.
The crowd at Cherry Hills on Saturday was 2,700. OK, maybe that’s a far cry from a Taylor Swift concert, but what makes this tourney so freakin’ awesome is that the crowd can walk straight down the fairway alongside the competitors.
At some point, each and every one of the fans seemed to be close enough to reach out and touch Shipley, including Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, who followed him for several holes midway through the round.
“He was someone I watched beat up on my Steelers,” Shipley said.
I’ve been blessed to serve as an eyewitness to a lot of great stuff in nearly 40 years of covering sports for The Denver Post, from John Elway imitating a helicopter at the Super Bowl to Nikola Jokic sharing a championship with his daughter.
But one of the coolest moments I’ve experienced took place Saturday at the 553-yard 17th hole, famous far and wide for being the first island green on a par-5 in American golf.
Up one hole in the match on Butler, Shipley grabbed a wedge and stood 93 yards from the pin to take his third shot. I stood maybe 15 feet away from him, alongside hundreds of his new BFFs.
Like a magician waving a wand, Shipley took dead aim with his wedge, spun the ball and watched the wizardry unfold.
The shot stuck one inch from the cup. This match belonged to the Righteous Dude.
The crowd engulfed him, offering fist bumps, momentarily turning a small piece of the hallowed grounds at Cherry Hills into a raucous mosh pit.
“Everyone was going crazy,” Shipley said. “I was going crazy.”
Way back on Aug. 11, competitors at the U.S. Amateur gathered on the first tee at Cherry Hills before their practice rounds, given the chance to re-create an iconic shot by the King.
Palmer won the 1960 U.S. Open at this same track, rallying from seven shots back to overcome the great Ben Hogan. The moment that made unforgettable history was the King boldly driving the par-4 first hole at the outset of the final round.
He did it the old-school way, with a classic persimmon club.
These young bucks at the U.S. Am were granted a chance to match Palmer with the same antiquated persimmon technology. Any guesses for the only current competitor able to reach the green with a persimmon driver in that exhibition, with nothing at stake except bragging rights?
“I was the only one,” Shipley said.
He’s now 36 holes away from the championship, although talented Nick Dunlap stands in his way as the prohibitive favorite.
But I wouldn’t put anything past a dude who drove the No. 1 green, just like Arnie did.
“That was a real cool way to start off the week,” said Shipley, before admitting: “I never thought the week would end up like this.”
Long hair flowing behind him, he walks in the footsteps of the King, feeling no fear.
With the Righteous Dude, it’s good vibes only.
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